Apocrypha

Mason Koa

In our house, Adam and Eve are diabetic and nothing is a symbol / in our house, the pill case looks more like a checkerboard from the aerial view, and more like the Pantheon from eye level / in our house, it hides behind the napkins in the cupboard, but comes out twice a day to see the sun, once at 10 a.m., again at 8 p.m. / in our house, Adam and Eve have grandchildren / swollen ankles / toy jeepneys / a check from Veterans Affairs / an American flag, sitting parallel to the crucifix / childbirth / sin / Family Feud reruns / the weight of the house / in the story, the snake tempts Eve into taking the apple / in our house, it’s Adam who takes the apple, and it’s usually red but not always a fruit / it’s Adam who takes the Coke / Jell-O / rib roast / Adam likes it rare / Grandpa likes it rare, Eve! Let him have it!

Adam and Eve have kids / Cain and Abel / in our house, Cain and Abel have kids / Abel lives in Georgia, where he can own 5000 square yards / a tractor / a dirt-bike route / Cain lives in SoCal / closer to family / Cain cares about his family / us / Cain doesn’t murder Abel in real life? / where is this snake? / what’d they do with the snake? / who runs this place? / who made Adam till the fields before he could enter the Garden? / the Garden wasn’t made for them / for people like them / God came to the families in Kalinga / taught those Filipinos some Spanish / then some English / God came with holy water / a book / in our house, the book comes before the people / they came with a catalogue of names, in alphabetical order, as if to say, we decide what is yours / what is you / to say, what was yours is now mine / to say, you are what we let you keep / by the time they’re in Tabuk, they’re on R / the neighbors are Radoc / Ragsac / Romero / Adam is a Ribao / the Ribaos come over / we come over for spring break, and the house smells like old people / primordial people, and during karaoke, “Party in the USA” plays on the radio and Adam sings / yells / breaks down in the middle of the chorus / his voice is coarse / ugly / perfect / trembling when he calls to Eve from downstairs / he says, I thought it go away / you always think it go away, says Eve / a nurse, which is how she got her visa / rifling through the nightstand for the telephone / the blood pressure band / Adam finds himself in a clean bed with a rail / like he’s a goddamn child / a child again / there is food / an attendant / a sense of pride / this is all for him.

We bring Adam home two days later in the passenger seat / we help him out of the car / it’s Easter when he comes back / happy Easter! / says no one / a deep-seated quietude in the soul / Humperdinck is playing / turon on the table / Cain’s cooked up a sirloin / Adam hides Dad’s phone / Cain’s phone / so he won’t take a picture / so he could just savor the moment / soak it in / to just experience what he has fought for / traversed the Pacific for / left his family for / just for a little / a little piece / Adam wants a piece / we’re all cutting into it, and all Adam wants is a taste of red, for a slice of sirloin or the meat around the bone / why not? / we think, why not? / is this not his? / Eve remembers why not / she speaks / she speaks, for once / you go eat the noodle, see, Abel make the noodle just for you / because you just come back from the hospital, you going to eat you-self to death, eat you-self to death in front of you kids / me kids / see, you going to be sick / and I sick, now / I sick of you.

Slowly, Adam gets up / brings his plate to the table in the other room, because this is his Garden, not ours. Adam coils around himself / turns his body into a noose / an ouroboros / sinks his fangs into his own scaly flesh. We all turn to Eve, who decides to let him eat in peace, even if she knows that he will swallow / even if she knows he will never be full.

Mason Koa has fiction published or forthcoming in Quarterly West, The Round, Vestal Review, Westwind, XRAY, and elsewhere. His work has been nominated for Best Microfiction 2024. His story was the runner-up for the 2023 Quarterly West Prose Contest. He is a graduate of the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Creative Writing Program. He is Filipino- and Chinese-American and writes from Northern California. He is fifteen years old.